This blog is the chronicle of my experiences with Grandma, the video-game playing queen of her age-bracket and weight class. She will beat any PS2, XBox, GameCube, etc., console game put in front of her, just like she always has. These are her stories. She is absolutely real. She lives in Cleveland.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Lights and tunnels

Grandma's life is finally resembling something others call "normal." She has completed cardiac therapy, which is another way of saying Medicare won't pay for it anymore. They gave her a certificate reminiscent of the "Pleasure to have in class" awards teachers give to elementary school students which we threatened to hang on the refrigerator.

"You hang that shit up there and I swear to god I'll set the fridge on fire," she countered.

Meanwhile, Grandma strolled her way through Infamous on the PS3, first as a hero, then as an asshole. She loved that game, but it wasn't particularly difficult for Grandma seeing as (and I hope we're not the first to notice this) it was basically Sly Cooper 4 with Sly Cooper played by a bald jackass.

Also, we have tons of stuff to talk about. Crispy Gamer, GamesRadar, VidaExtra, Swiss TV... Tons of awesome this past month. Things are good. That's not even including PAX 2009 in September. Grandma and I always wanted to go, so this year we're going.Do you speak German? Maybe you do. Swiss TV produced a piece on the changing demographics of gaming featuring Grandma last month. Arthur Honegger (no, not that one), the reporter for Swiss TV, was very kind to Grandma, visiting our home in Ohio before flying out to E3 to complete the story.

If you don't speak German, here's something for you: you'll notice that when Grandma is interviewed, there is a single, still image on the screen behind her, a screengrab of the Japanese version of Earth Defense Force 2017, complete with an IGN logo in the bottom right hand corner. Arthur needed a still image on the screen of a game she played, and most pause functions darken the screen or bring up a menu, so I used Java PS3 Media Server on my computer downstairs and found the image from an earlier post. I pulled it up on the PS3 and displayed it on her screen. I had to move the sticks on the controller every few minutes off camera to keep the screen from going dark.

If you do speak German, then I'd like to talk to you a bit about something Arthur said while he was here. We were talking about violence in video games and how it's different in Europe. He mentioned "if there is sex in a video game, nobody cares, but if it's violent it gets banned." Sort of a reverse of how it is here in The States. I remember when the Der Spiegel article about Grandma came out, someone had said that they couldn't get God of War 2 in Germany. Are there ways around this? Is it all PAL games or do you have to get a modded console or an NTSC version or.. how do you do it? We're very curious about this.

Literally while Arthur was setting up his equipment, Grandma checked her email and found that Scott Jones and John Keefer with CrispyGamer.com wanted to show her something they thought would make her feel awesome.

So now we have two lists of elderly badassness published fairly close together, proclaiming Grandma as the motherfucking queen. Hell, no problems from me there, although I tend to think Grandma's personal vote would be for none other than BUGENHAGEN.

BEHOLD HIS GLORY!

Ho Ho Hoooo, indeed sir. Ho Ho Hoooo.

So now let's look at each list critically, to see how they compare.

It's tricky to do as CrispyGamer lists 21 and GamesRadar 7, but the results are surprising.

Not counting sequel differences such as Metal Gear Solid and Street Fighter, arguably the biggest change is the inclusion of Avery Johnson of the Halo series. GamesRadar lists The End rather than Old Snake, and Oro rather than Gouken.

As it contrasts in this way, the hierarchy shares a remarkable pattern:

Discounting the inclusion of Halo, these two lists by two different authors on two different high traffic sites seem to hold very, very close opinions. But why? What phenomenon is displayed here? Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting anything sinister. Both articles are well written and in different voices, so the ugly "p-word" doesn't really apply, thank Christ. I'd like to think there are somewhat universal trends and opinions shared by most authors of gaming articles- there are just some things that become Natural Hierarchies, like FFVII > FFX > Alone in the Dark > FFX-2. Debatable? Maybe. But more often than not, that's probably the order you'd find.

Are there similar orders to elderly awesomeness?

I find this shit fascinating.

Also: after really thinking about it, I appreciate how difficult it is to create a list of the greatest old folks in gaming- characters, NPC's and real people alike. There are waaaay too many for me to compile any kind of opinion on it. For as much as the 'new' demographic is to gaming, they've been arguably well represented in all sorts of ways. No doubt there have been many instances where they are depicted as old biddies who like cats (I'm looking at you, Nintendo Wii startup guide), there are plenty of times when they have kicked ass.

I will say this, though, I'd have to include Doris Self waaaay up at the top of any such list. I wish her and Grandma could have met.

Anyway, it's been verified by respectable gaming websites: Grandma can destroy us all.

And that's awesome :)

Also! Grandma also enjoyed a mention on the site VidaExtra, so we're getting a lot of traffic from Spanish speaking gamers out there right now. I love international readers. The emails and comments especially- there are people all over the world who know others just like Grandma. This was never a nationalistic thing where people would shake their heads and think "only in America..." The gaming world was never that way. It's a big family. A family with more grandparents than people realized.

Hola!

Now let's talk about Infamous. It's consumed Grandma's life recently between trips to therapy and fishing so it deserves some attention. Infamous was Grandma's choice after beating the everloving shit out of Resident Evil 5. I would have liked to post about RE5 more as well, but the job hunt has limited my activities to applications, resumes, CivIV and the sweet release of sleep. (I know I need to post more often, guys. It's my fault and I'll try to do better.)

Where to start. Grandma was first to notice its similarities with Sly Cooper of the two of us. The bluetooth cell phone replacing the radio with the little messages popping up; Bently and Murray essentially replaced by Zeke and John. Jumping on high places and taking a good long look around for missions highlighted by glowing pillars of light. Hell, Cole and Sly even sort of stand and walk the exact same way, haunched over, low to the ground; their worlds distorted as though through a wide angle lens. Look at this:

Raccoon.

Not a raccoon.

So if you are familiar with the themes and gameplay of the Sly Cooper series, you're already know how to play Infamous. That is to say, jumping around, find stuff, climbing on stuff, kick the shit out of something, run away before it kills you.

And goddammit, that's not a bad thing. Sucker Punch didn't make a Sly Cooper mod and call it Infamous, but they are clearly going with what they know how to do best. As platformers go, it's great. Grandma really got into finding new ways of electrocuting people. Because really, before Infamous, we could only think of two ways. Turns out it's more like seven ways.

If she had any gripe with the game, beside the usual "this part is rather difficult" or from what I could tell anyway, it was with the plot.

Grandma, for some reason, had a problem with Trish.

If you haven't played the game yet, Trish is Cole McGrath's girlfriend. According to Grandma, Trish is also, apparently, "a self-righteous bitch."

Spoliers ahead.

"I don't get Trish."-"What do you mean?""I don't know. She just blames everything on Cole just because he's alive during the explosion, right?"-"No, she's suspicious.""Of what?"-"That he delivered the package that was the bomb.""So she's bitching at Cole for doing his job, is what you're saying."-"Sort of, I guess.""She nags at him for being a delivery guy, then she nags at him for surviving while other people died in the blast, then she nags at him because SHE wants to drive people from the hospital, she even digs at him by saying 'ooooo, I was in medical school, I know stuff. What the hell did YOU do with your life."-No she didn't.""Yes she did! And then she DIES. And if you play as the evil Cole, she nags at him right before she dies. The only difference between good Cole and evil Cole is you don't get that one last nagging when she dies."-"She does nag.""I don't even know why they are together. It doesn't make sense to me."

She like the choice between good and evil, as cliche as it has become since the ending of Legacy of Kain. She dug similar games like KOTOR and Oblivion, where choices matter, even if the choice is a clear polar opposite. There were times when she would get negative karma and not know why, however. It turns out it was because her favorite way of dispatching enemies was blowing up cars; cars that often had innocent bystanders doing their bystanding a little too close. Due to her hatred of Trish, she wasn't annoyed that she dies no matter what the hell you do.

The good and evil endings were very similar to the ends of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, where different cutscenes were injected as appropriate.

The gameplay frustrated her, but no more than it was supposed to, I think.

"Hard mode is a bunch of BULLSHIT. They hit you two times and you're DEAD."-"Well... that's why it's hard mode.""Smartass."

Upon her second playthrough as an evil person:"I keep trying to fly, but I forgot that I don't have that power yet. It's annoying."

"GODDAMMIT I BLEW MYSELF UP AGAIN."

"I like how when you cure people the enemies just stand there and watch. You think that would be a good time to shoot him."

And yet she still liked it. She has her own theories about who "The Beast" is, so it's safe to bet that's she'll play the sequel.

As long as they don't have Satellite Uplink missions.

Okay. We finally paid for everything, it's all set, so I can say it with absolute certainty:

Grandma is going to PAX.

In the past, she would talk about E3 as though it was the end-all games conference; something she had always wanted to see but couldn't afford and lacked the necessary media credentials to attend. Then MTV stepped in and made that happen in 2006. She loved it, even though she wasn't feeling well at the time (that was a sign of things to come, wasn't it.) In the meantime, you have all described PAX as a big party for gamers. You told her she'd love it. That it's full of her kind of people. Keynote speeches on things we all find interesting. Concerts from groovy musicians. Exhibitions and booths and all manner of good things she would love to see.

At E3 2006, we finally met Annie (hi, Annie!) who introduced Grandma to Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the creators of a comic that, believe it or not (although most of you know by now) has made Grandma press F5 more often than perhaps people should. It was a brief meeting, but they were cool. She's probably won't get to meet them again with all the stuff they'll have going on during the convention, but goddammit if she's not going to the convention anyway. Grandma is going to have a ball with the rest of us.

It was something I wanted to make happen for Grandma since late last year, but after being laid-off and then her heart-bypass surgery, it seemed more and more like a pipe dream. Somehow we pulled it off. We'll be on a shoe-string budget for the trip, but Grandma is going for all three days of the convention so she can take her time and see all there is to see.

And meet you people!

Seriously, come say hi! Fuck! She loves to talk gaming and lately the only person she's had available to do so is me. And I'm boring.

Yeah I'm so happy that she's fine \o/I should say that I am very jalous, what a beautiful collection of games in the video ! I never noticed before but that's huuuuuuge ! (I must hide it from my boyfriend, I am sure that he would have the same !)

I've been reading the blog pretty much since the beginning. I'll be at PAX. Hope I see you there. I'll be the booth manager at the ArenaNet (Guild Wars) booth, so stop by if you have time (ask for Regina). Would love to meet you both. :-) If not, I hope you have an awesome time at PAX. It's a great con. Not as big as E3 (of the past) or GameCom, but it's a great fan-oriented event.

To be honest, most of Grandma's games and even some of the systems themselves were gifts. She bought her first systems herself and always hinted at what kind of gifts she would like during holidays, if you know what I mean :) After she was on the news, Sony gave her a PSP and a bunch of games; Nintendo gave her a Wii, a DS, and a bunch of games, and Microsoft gave her her Xbox 360 on the set of TRL back in 2006, and Evan still sends Grandma stuff. If it weren't for all these folks, there's no way we could afford such a collection. We're not rich people :)

brinstar-

Regina!! We will look for you there! I promise. I know you'll probably be really busy, but Grandma would love to finally meet you.

VERY glad to see a post AND to hear that Grandma is doing as well as can be given the situation. I'm on a huge push re: revamping this nation's ridiculous health care system, volunteering when I can and writing letters like crazy.

Grandma's experience with Infamous was what I needed to seal the decision of whether to buy it or not.

The hubby is German and lived there until his mid-30s. Yes, what was said is true. Sex, no problem. Violence, HUGE problem! I remember one of my first visits there with him in 1994 and I was appalled at the PC and video games that were just NOT available. I gave my sister-in-law my Game Boy and all my carts on that trip because A) she was salivating over it and B) they cost the devil at that time plus most of the games I had for it were hard to find/not available/expensive.

She since graduated to console gaming and PC gaming but she, and our other friends there, just can't get the games we can here that contain any sort of violence.

One of the things I've always noticed on my trips there was also how many magazines were prominently displayed everywhere with very sexual photos but no way you could find anything coming near to violence, especially graphic. I left several issues of PC Gamer with a friend about 12 years ago on a visit. He couldn't thank me enough.

You get the picture. As for how they get around it, I'd have to let someone who is currently there answer that.

I hope Grandma has a ton of fun at PAX! Someday maybe I'll make that but not this year. We're still recovering from moving out of OH and back to NY state last year.

Again..so glad you posted...I was beginning to think the worst. And Tim, I hope you're doing OK. How's the job situation? I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering how you're doing.

Ruthiethe gal that used to live where I70 and I77 meet and is glad she's out of that hole!

I'm from Germany and since you asked, here is some information on the "games banned/cut in Germany" thing.

It's all a matter of youth protection. At least that's the explanation the government gives for cutting games that are too "brutal". Games are also often made responsible for people running amok at schools. "He played Counterstrike, then he killed his schoolmates. Makes perfect sense." Only that it doesn't, but you can always catch some votes for you political party with crap like that.

I'll give you some examples of what german law does to games. no swastika symbols or other nazi-related stuff (which is ok given our problematic past). No dismemberment of bodies, no limbs may be severed, no beheading. Dead bodies may not be kicked, shot, etc. Take Saint's Row 2 as an example: the german version has a plain black screen with the words "very bad things happen behind this black screen" if things get too brutal. if you kill pedestrians in GTA, they will not drop money - because it might make players kill people just for this purpose. also, there are no rampages in german GTA games because it's only "mindless killing for a reward". also, not too much blood may be spilled. so you see, games can be cut in many ways in Germany, and it really annoys adult gamers like me.

did you know that the government in Germany now wants to ban all "killer games" (that's the catchphrase) from the German market? that means, they are actually trying to stop "brutal" games in Germany altogether. not just for people under 18, for everybody. isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? And what exactly is a killer game? Super Mario jumps on turtle's heads, kills them and then uses the empty shell on other cute little animals. if that isn't killing, I don't know what is :-)

now don't get me wrong, I'm all for youth protection. a ten-year-old shouldn't be allowed to play GTA. but I'm 36, and I won't let the government tell me what to do with my spare time - and "protect" me from games that are too brutal. how stupid is that?

I'm posting as "anonymous" just because I don't have an account here and not because I want to stay hidden - you may contact me via http://www.myspace.com/jesco73 if you like :-)

Grandma, those were my EXACT feelings about Trish! I mean, right down the line. About midway through I couldn't figure out why he was being so nice to her. Just wanted to let you know you are not alone with that. I really dug the satellite missions, tho' :)

Youre so awesome, man! I cant believe I missed this blog for so long. Its just great stuff all round. Your design, man...too amazing! I cant wait to read what youve got next. I love everything that youre saying and want more, more, MORE! Keep this up, man! Its just too good.

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